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Thomson Healthcare and Emory University Form the Institute for Health and Productivity Studies

Posted on: Monday, 17 March 2008, 15:00 CDT

STAMFORD, Conn., March 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Thomson Healthcare has entered a strategic partnership with Atlanta-based Emory University to form the Institute for Health Productivity Studies (IHPS).

The institute will be housed at the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health. Ron Goetzel, vice president of consulting and applied research at Thomson Healthcare, will be the director of the institute. Ken Thorpe, Robert W. Woodruff professor and chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at Emory, will be the institute's co-director.

IHPS blends university and commercial research talent to conduct studies that explore the relationship between employee health and well-being and work- related productivity. The institute works with businesses to conduct rigorous research and apply tested evaluation methods to help them answer important questions relevant to improving the health and productivity of their workforce.

"The mission of IHPS is to bridge the gap between academia, the business community, and the healthcare policy world," said Goetzel, a research professor at Emory. "Our goal is to bring academic resources into policy debates and day-to-day business decisions in order to promote the development and use of metrics for healthcare quality improvement."

Currently, IHPS is working on a number projects in both the private and public sector. They include a study for the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute on environmental approaches to obesity management at the Dow Chemical Co. and a worksite health promotion study for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention involving a public-private partnership with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

In addition, researchers from Thomson and Emory collaborated on three studies published in a recent issue of the Journal of Environmental Medicine (February 2008, Volume 50, Issue 2):

-- Development of the Environmental Assessment Tool (EAT) to Measure Organizational Physical and Social Support for Worksite Obesity Prevention Programs. -- The Impact of the Highmark Employee Wellness Programs on 4-Year Healthcare Costs. -- Baseline Characteristics of Workers at Ten New York City Employers Recruited for a Private-Public Research Collaborative. About Thomson Healthcare

Thomson Healthcare is the leading provider of decision support solutions that help organizations across the healthcare industry improve clinical and business performance. Thomson Healthcare products and services help clinicians, hospitals, employers, health plans, government agencies, and pharmaceutical companies manage the cost and improve the quality of healthcare.

Thomson Healthcare is a part of The Thomson Corporation, a provider of value-added information, software tools and applications to professionals in the fields of healthcare, law, tax, accounting, scientific research, and financial services. The Corporation's common shares are listed on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges. For more information, visit (http://www.thomsonhealthcare.com/).

Thomson Healthcare

CONTACT: David Wilkins, Thomson Healthcare, +1-734-913-3397,david.wilkins@thomson.com

Web site: http://www.thomsonhealthcare.com/

Source: PRNewswire

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